Started over on Rimworld, still on "tough" but downshifted the "narrator" from classic to chillax, so that the challenges are still deadly but come a little less often. I started in a slightly more hilly area this time, and decided that since 2 of my 3 starting colonists were decent at mining that I'd build into the side of a hill instead of having a free-standing cluster of houses.
It made for more difficult going at the start, but it paid off when, in spring of the second year, RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT started falling from the sky. The longer anything stayed outdoors, the sicker it would get.
Fortunately by this point I had researched geothermal power and hydroponics, so I was already more or less minimally self sufficient. And as the wildlife outside died (I made sure to restrict the colony's cat and two tamed animals to the interior area of the compound), I had colonists scamper out to collect the corpses and butcher them inside, leaving me with way more meat than I could store in my freezer. So then I frantically started converting it to pemmican, which isn't very tasty but lasts forever without refrigeration. Even then, I didn't manage to get it all converted before it spoiled (though I had the freezer stuffed to the gills with raw meat, too, so that was good). So, what started off to be a questionable choice that just seemed to be making things arbitrarily harder for me (mining is a lot slower than building), it turned out to be what saved the colony.
The fallout lasted until halfway through summer. My colonists were only minimally inconvenienced.
That said, everything isn't peachy... I've set up a comm system and an orbital relay but have had no space traders over the past year, and the traders from other nearby communities are often worthless or gouge prices. There's a nearby "ancient" structure I found while mining that I'm preeeeetty sure houses necrons or something inside (the narrator specifically gave me the "Toribashi senses this ancient place to be full of danger" bit) so I'm just gonna leave that alone and hope that it stays dormant. And probably most annoyingly of all, two of my colonists have decided they hate each other and are constantly bickering and it's really killing the mood, especially since they came to blows once already. I'm not sure what I can do about this - I can't even arrange to have one of them killed off/exiled/whatever, because one guy is married and his wife would probably take it hard, and the other guy is another colonist's father, so ditto there. Also I've researched everything I can until I can come up with some gold and plasteel, but I can't seem to find any locally and that shit's expensive on the traders, who often don't want to buy anything of mine I'm willing to part with.
